Tuesday, 29 January 2013

Happy New Year to everyone .......................
Best wishes for an exciting and weed/grub/critter/fungus free year ahead in the Garden !!

We had a very frightening start to the New Year with a bush fire coming within 150 metres of our home on New Years Eve, a couple of our neighbour's properties lost all vegetation and sheds but luckily their homes and animals were saved.
I've always planned to pack the dogs in the car, get the hell out and not stay to protect our home But this fire happened so quickly by a very stupid neighbour who thought nothing of burning off a little bit of rubbish even though fire restrictions were in place.
Ok so my husband took control (told me nicely to get inside and change my summer attire) do you think I could find a woollen hat for my curly hair I was worried about!!!
He got our fire fighting trailer(water tank with petrol driven pressure hose) in place while I filled buckets with water and wet down the garden around the house and madly threw all the fire wood stacked neatly on the front veranda into space along with any outdoor furniture which was timber.
Four hours, 3 water helicopters and 28 firetrucks later the fire was controlled..........

Looking out to our front paddocks from the veggie garden where the fire passed by our front fence.
Needless to say I'm a tad nervous at present as we haven't had rain for 85 days and our dams are shrinking by the day........
Ok not all doom and gloom....... the veggie garden is providing us with daily treats, plenty of lettuce, zucchini, peppers,spinach, eggplants,basil and the first of the Roma tomatoes are turning color !!

I'm slowly making covers for all my veggies with shade cloth as the difference it makes is fantastic, here you can see how well my lettuce/cucumber bed is doing. Thanks LIZ for the lettuce seed the freckles variety are doing beautifully and make such a great addition to the salad bowl.

Heaps of tasty potatoes and in the plastic container....................................my favorite !!!